HARROGATE, Tenn. --- Lincoln Memorial's Rylee Storms recorded 12 kills and a .324 hitting percentage to lead the Railsplitters to a 3-0 sweep over Tusculum Tuesday night at Mars Gym in South Atlantic Conference women's volleyball action.
LMU won the match by scores of 25-16, 25-13, 25-22 to improve to 6-2 overall and 2-0 in the league. The Railsplitters also improve to 6-0 at home this year while the Pioneers (2-6, 0-2 SAC) drop their first road match of the season.
Tusculum senior Melissa Mazur finished the match with 23 digs including the 2,000th of her career, becoming only the third player in program history to achieve the feat. Mazur broke the 2K barrier midway through the first set as she posted eight in the opening frame.
Storms also tallied five digs and four blocks for LMU, while Emma Flowers and Tone Gill added six kills apiece. LMU's Erica Whitaker led all players with 28 digs becoming her program's all-time leader in that category with 1,809.
In the first set, LMU jumped out to 4-0 lead including back-to-back kills from Flowers. Tusculum answered with 6-0 spurt including a pair of Nevena Pejovic kills and one kill each from Carli Pigza and Gabby Gray as TU led 6-4. But a 9-1 run by the hosts gave LMU a 13-7 lead including three service aces during the spark for a 13-7 lead. Tusculum called a timeout and scored two quick points to trim the deficit to 13-9.
LMU answered with a 5-1 run to go up 18-11 before Tusculum responded with three straight including a Mazur ace and a kill by Pigza as TU trailed 18-14. But the Railsplitters closed out the frame with a 7-2 run to win the first set 25-16.
With the score tied 7-7 in the second set, Lincoln Memorial went on a 9-0 run to take a 16-7 lead en route to a 25-13 score to take a 2-0 lead in the set.
With their backs against the wall, the Pioneers jumped out to a quick 4-0 lead in the third set thanks to a Tatum Thornton kill and three LMU hitting errors. Lincoln Memorial came back with an 8-4 spurt to even the frame at 8-8 following a Gill service ace.
Tusculum reclaimed the lead at 9-8 on a Gray kill, but LMU answered with a 5-1 spark to take a 13-10 lead. LMU extended the lead to 19-14 before the Pioneers rattled off three straight points to cut the deficit to 19-17. After a LMU timeout, the home team scored two in a row to push the lead back out to four at 21-17. TU made a couple of runs and got to within two on two occasions including 21-19 and fought off match point twice to get to 24-22. But a ball handling error on match point gave LMU the 25-22 win in the set to seal the victory.
LMU's Emily Walter dished out 32 assists to go with her five digs. TU's Alyssa Rojas distributed 17 assists and seven digs, while Gray finished with a team-high seven kills to go along with her 10 digs. Blythe added four kills and four blocks, while Pigza finished with five kills and a .400 hitting percentage.
LMU finished the night with a .174 hitting percentage while Tusculum was held to a .050 attack percentage.
Tusculum continues its five-match road trip on Friday as they visit defending SAC Champion Anderson for a 7 p.m. match.
